How will child support be determined in my family law case?

With respect to child support in Ontario, in family law, the parent with whom the child primarily resides is entitled to a basic or a Table amount of child support to compensate him or her for money spent on the day-to-day care of the child. The Table amount of child support in Ontario is determined on the basis of the income of the payor (the person who is paying support) and the number of children that he or she has. Ontario has a separate Table in order to determine this amount.

In addition to the basic amount of child support in Ontario, you may have an obligation to pay for section 7 expenses for the child. According to section 7(1) of the Federal Child Support Guidelines, examples of some of these expenses include:

• Child care expenses incurred as a result of the custodial parent’s employment or illness;
• The portion of the medical and dental insurance premiums attributable to the child;
• Health-related expenses that exceed insurance reimbursement by at least $100 annually, including orthodontic treatment, professional counselling provided by a psychologist, social worker, psychiatrist, or any other person;
• Extraordinary expenses for primary or secondary school education or for any other educational programs that meet the child’s particular needs; and,
• Expenses for post-secondary education.

In addition to the expenses listed above, the Guidelines also identify “extraordinary expenses” in family law, being extracurricular activities for the children. One of the issues regarding extraordinary expenses is that it is difficult to ascertain the nature and extent of those expenses considered ordinary and captured in the tabled amounts as opposed to those that are extraordinary.

The guiding principle in family law is that section 7 expenses are to be shared by the parties in proportion to their incomes. If the child is able to contribute to an extraordinary expense, the court will likely order that the child do so.

There are exceptions to the above-noted scheme of child support in Ontario. For example, if you earn more than $150,000 per year, judges have the discretion to depart from the Table amount of child support in Ontario. In this case, the parent seeking an order that departs from the Table amount bears the onus. The lifestyle of the family when it was intact is relevant to this determination.